I love my yard!

I'm very proud of this image.

So my teeth are better, I needed some time to rest. I was also losing a bit of my spirituality, which is nothing like me. So I spent a day in silence, and worked on some personal inner issues.

I added a new gallery to my website. I take a lot of pictures outside and felt I needed a "mother earth" category..

Here are some shots I took this morning. I was outside to watch the sun rise. The rest are at my website. I have others I need to watermark and post from earlier in the year.

My antibiotics may or may not be working, so I opened up the "cabinet". My right side of my face is so horribly swollen right now, and the worst part is, I am convince that there is a chunk of my impacted wisdom tooth from last year, still inside my jaw bone. There should be nothing there at all, but it is definitely something. And this may be causing some irritation and infection. So I'm now relying on my tea (green tea leaves, basil and pure peppermint oil) to combat the issue, as well as poltice and plenty of rest. If things keep on I'll go get some echunacia (sp??)

In other news, we apparently have more snow coming, and we should be stuck like we were last time. So we have today to get salt for the driveway and get George all set up and ready to rock.

I haven't seen him in days because I've been trying to get some rest, so I must go see him today.

I tried to awaken all of my Chakras yesterday, but some positions are just not a good idea with all the swelling in my face, so Third Eye and Crown were off limits.... I'll try again today and maybe just push through it, I'll feel better after.

Loosened a back molar grinding.. This is getting crazy. I can't use mouth guards, because I bite through them. I've tried everything, it's so frustrating. I did get relief from grinding (because nothing is worse than grinding ON pained teeth) from doing some meditation in bed.. I think I might need to bring my yoga practice into my evening routine.

I'm on limewire downloading Alex's song selection for his mini media player, and an episode of Suite life of Zack and Cody. He's 8..and I feel like he's going to be a teen before I know it.

I took 4 ibuprofen this morning, right when I woke up. So far, so good. I need to try and at least stretch this morning, since I have been in bed all day yesterday. And I am hoping head stand will help me out with some of my grinding and pain.

George was good yesterday, I have been doing some lunge work with him, change of direction by hand signals and backing up when I walk towards him. He's a good boy. For his first time on the line working like this, he did really well. Our bridleless work was less than perfect, but he has bad days like anyone else.

lol

Still working on riding with no bridle. Today was even better! We did some trot serpentines and circles and backed up as well. It was really cool. I got a lot of video I am going to put together and post later. Here are some images from the occasion, as well as a picture from George and I sharing our breakfast :)

Did two self portraits today..

Softer Version:







Harder Frame:







A bit of barn drama going on. There's a lady who weighs about 500 pounds at the barn. Seriously. She is on SS for her weight. But that's not the issue. The issue is that she follows me around all the time and criticizes every little thing I do. From the way I clean my stall to the way I ride my horse. Ok...fine. There is a little social circle at the barn that I would rather not be involved in. So I try to be nice to her, and she decides to email the barn owner (who is in FL showing right now) and tell her that I have been leaving the guard open to the upper barn (which I am not part of) and Bugsy (the 32 year old gelding owned by the barn owner) has been getting into the barn and eating another horses' alfalfa. What's funny is that just before this she was going around blaming the ever shrinking alfalfa bale on a girl who works there. So I get an email from the owner telling me i need to be careful about leaving the guard tape up. I am really pissed. So I send this lady an email pretty much saying (in a nice but firm way) that I don't appreciate her running her mouth, and I have no desire to play games with her. So next time she feels I am doing some detrimental to the well being of a horse she needs to tell me instead of stressing out our barn owner. She writes me back with her usual "I'm your best friend and I never talk about ANYBODY", but that's all she does every time she's out there. For whatever reason, everyone is so afraid of her except me and Raini. Probably because we're both straight forward and teetering towards "bitchy". SO, I decide not to respond to her email. And she calls every single person at the barn trying to find out if I have said anything about her, and no one has any idea what she's talking about. Probably because I don't play those games. So basically, she responded to me telling her she needs to stop talking behind my back....by talking behind my back.

I haven't seen her since I wrote her, so today I was in the arena riding George with NO BRIDLE and NO SADDLE (I am super proud about that). And her two "buddies" came in and threw a fit that I was going to get in their way. And that the barn owner is going to blame the lady who took over lessons when she comes back and sees that I totally axed my saddle. GAH!!! It kind of hurts my feelings that I now can't even ride in the arena, and that I am being ganged up on for defending myself. But whatever.. I rode my horse with no bridle today.

I did a self portrait. Other than the fact that I look like a boy, I like it.

So, Brandon is getting a new bed and a beautiful dinosaur bedding set from me for his birthday. His party isn't until this weekend, so everything should ship there by then. Alex is finally back in school. Birds are starting to come back and George is able to go out (for now) in the big field during the day. And Jay and I can finally actually have uh..relations, since we have time to ourselves again. (night time is not the right time for us lol we're like old people)

Here are my first pics of 2007!

-To watch more movies with Alex

-To send more Pictures to Brandon, More often.

-To see Brandon by February

-To appreciate what I have and settle for less sometimes

-To have my wonderful horse for another year

-To go out into the world more than I do.

-To volunteer at the humane society

-To love my family 10 times more than I do now (if that's possible)

-To master scorpion pose for longer than 10 seconds before I fall on my face

-To embrace my divine self

-To gallop George across the field with no bridle or saddle

I made this for Icabod and Zeros page on my site. And because I am big on promoting mix breed adoption..so here is Icabod and Zeros contribution to the cause!

Yesterday morning Jay went to the barn for me, he put George in what we call the "mare pasture" because it was empty and right now there is so much mud that there is nowhere for him to go outside. And he can't go in the gelding pasture until Oliver the fancy pants horse is gone to Florida to compete. So he gets 40 acres because God help us all if my 20 year old horse beats up a 15 year old warmblood who is twice George's size... and who enjoys tormenting other horses. (twice his size in mass, not height. George is 17.2) ANYWAY, we came back to the barn around 2pm to find George locked in his stall and Debs two geldings in the mare pasture. Whatever, that's fine. I guess she DID come to that barn 2 days before I did, and he horses ARE only over a decade younger than mine, can go out with the younger horses and are NOT arthritic.. but that's ok. So I took my sweetie pie to the indoor and let him run and roll and then threw his lead rope around his neck and took him out for a ride around the property. All was well, he got his carrots and his lovins and he was his general perfect self.

So I decide to dismiss the whole pasture thing and remember that Oliver leaves in a few days, so I don't have to worry too much. Then I get a call from Deb last night, starting off, "I don't want to make you mad or anything but I have to tell you something." So I say, "Ok, is George ok?" And she goes on to tell me about how he has been trying to attack her and pins his ears at her, and that she went in his stall to do his water the other night and he jumped on her.

OK... something makes me think one of two things...

1) She's lying

2) She's doing something to him, or she has smacked him or maybe even tried to ride him or change his routine without my permission.

This is a horse who my 8 year old son can go in the stall with and just hug him and play with him and he doesn't move a muscle. And Alex can jump on him bareback and take him around and he's as solid as a rock.

I just don't see him attacking people unless he's provoked.

I'm watching out the window waiting for the mailman. He always has a special package for me...ah haaa haaa haaaa


I guess that's all.

I really love these black and white barn cats. They're so "rough" looking. I should just dedicate a whole site page to them:





And some beautiful shots back lit with the sunrise:

So, I banked pretty well. I got the entire 6th season of Roseanne (which is my all time most favorite it show...ever), an entire collection of brown sugar body products, lots of candles, my tiny mp3 player, my strange sculptures, new bandana and a great purse.

I had a good Christmas. Alex is overwhelmed by presents and very happy with his "santa" gifts. And the I Dog player thing is really cute.

Oh, and I love the ipod for yoga. I am a big music person. And last night I fell asleep in head to knee pose while listening to tracy chapman. lol

AN IPOD SHUFFLE!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, I'm done. We did our traditional gift exchange format, or the first part. Where early Christmas Eve we open gifts from each other. Then it will be grandma exchange (we're keeping grandma...just exchanging gifts), then Christmas morning is all about Santa. I also got a great leopard print purse (pink and black :D) and a new bandana and 50 bucks to buy a bareback pad and bosal for George and Alex got me a statue of the letter "P", a statue of a uh.. spear thing? And a statue of an egyptian. He say's I can hang the P outside my bathroom and yell "P ON THE WALL!" Every time I go in there.. I love kids.

Jay got me the ipod. Which I am charging and have been staring at forever. I got him a Nan Goldin book.

George was good and I got some great pics this morning but don't have time to resize etc. George had a special breakfast with a mix of apples and carrots.

Now I am off to make vegan fudge and put my make up on.

It's Christmas Eve... Must go see George, ride, come home and clean, cook, etc etc. Jays Mom is staying overnight to be here with Alex on Christmas morning. I invited her. She just adores him. He is being so good now that he has not only earned back his TV and ALL his gifts from us, but he also got to open one last night. The second POTC movie with a bonus CD of pirate songs. He was excited about it. Although he's chomping at the bit to open them all tonight. lol

We had burger night..well they had burger night, I had Soy Burger night with peppers and onions and no bun. Alex made his own patties and cooked them himself with Jay's supervision.

I didn't get to see George yesterday, Jay fed him and did his stall because he was going to be in town anyway. And we're 30 minutes from the barn and gas is expensive.

I think this morning I will just hang out with him, groom him, overload him with carrots and let him run free in the big pasture. And maybe ride. I'm working on riding him with no bridle at all and no saddle. He's pretty good, but I have to credit that it is mostly because of his high level dressage schooling and 15 years of competing. Not all because of me. Although he does take advantage (major) of new riders (experienced or not), so it is somewhat me. I know him well enough to ride him without too many issues. lol sort of.

First off, Alex got in heaps of trouble at school. (He's a bit of a bully sometimes, something I have never tolerated, but as he speeds like a freight train towards puberty, he's a little..ahem..unbalance upstairs I think) So we took away all of his presents under the tree, his toys out of his room, and TV. We made a contract he had to sign to earn everything back. To get his TV he had to take a manners lesson and we had to discuss 10 negative things that were a direct result of what he did. And to get his presents back he has various things he has to do. What did he do? He told a little girl he hates her because he didn't want to play with her, made her cry, then told his teacher's aid he hated her..

Something about my son, he's beyond bright. And I don't say that because he's mine. He recently replicated the Mona Lisa, he watches the Discovery channel, makes Indie films (that are actually pretty good), is advanced in photoshop, can manipulate Paint Brush and beat Resident Evil AND Doom 3 in less than a week.. and he's 8. So there really isn't an excuse for his actions..

In other news, I am trying to get my house clean, doggie proofed (Icabod's new habit is eating cords and wires), and making a book for Brandon for his Birthday on New Years Day.

I'm tired.

Oh nevermind, here it is :)